From:
"Jen"
Date: 2007-02-16 06:25:59 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Chronic Diarrhea
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Hello again,
Thank you all for the quick replies about Kodo's diarrhea. I
received so much useful information, which has been wonderful to be
able to share with Kodo's vet. My apologies for not replying sooner,
but I read the replies right away. My furnace quit working during
the snowstorm we had and I had to have a repairman here 6 times to
work on it in the past few days. Then when I finally got a chance to
post, Yahoo is rejecting my posts. I hope it goes through this time.
Several changes were made to Kodo's daily routine. He was not
tolerating his medications at all. He was drooling & foaming at the
mouth, gagging, fighting really hard and peeing on us when trying to
give meds. Then he'd spend the next 15 minutes after going back in
his hospital cage grinding his teeth, and pawing at his mouth like
crazy. The meds seemed to be far more stress than they were worth
since his diarrhea was not going away, so everything but his Pred was
discontinued. He was nearly finished with the Carafate and Amoxy
anyhow. I just hope we didn't make a mistake by stopping the
Carafate with how his tummy seems to hurt with all the grinding, but
then again it caused him so much stress, it was getting really hard
to see it as helping him.
After discussing some of the info from you all, the vet decided that
Imuran could be the way to go for Kodo, so he is going to be starting
that as soon as it arrives. It's coming from Vetcentric and will be
chicken flavored.
His Pred had been temporarily increased on Monday to 1 ml 2x/day
(6.7mg/5ml), but since it didn't seem to be helping and he is already
having belly troubles, so the vet cut it back to 0.5 ml, starting
with last nights dose. Hopefully the Imuran will do a whole lot more
for him than the Pred has done.
We also got Kodo a bag of Innovative Vet Diet (Duck & Peas) since he
seemed so disinterested in the Z/D. He seems to like the IVD a bit
better, although he still isn't eating alot of kibble right now. We
are trying to take him gradually from the Iams to the IVD, while
giving him A/D several times a day. He's really not showing any
interest in kibble today, even if it's been added to an A/D slurry to
make them nice and soft for him. His overall appetite is just not
very good, but seems to be better at certain times than others. I'm
not sure why this could be, unless his tummy feels better at certain
times. Today has been one of his bad days, but we are trying our
best to get food into him, even if only small amounts at a time.
The vet also recommended something high in fiber, R/D or W/D to help
firm up his stools. Pumpkin was another possibility for getting some
extra fiber in his diet. I also recieved some useful tips about
adding something like heavy whipping cream to help him gain weight
back. Would a combination of these things be helpful? And are we
making too many adjustments in his food?
He also getting SUBQ fluids as needed. The only problem with this is
that the general area where he's getting poked (the back of his neck)
is a bit swollen, even though we are trying to vary where he's being
poked. While I realise that fluids can be very helpful if he's
dehydrated, it's very hard to tell if he is dehydrated. And if we're
not sure if he's actually dehydrated, it's a tough call on whether to
keep poking him.
I also noticed something today that strikes me as strange. It might
be a completely stupid thing to even mention, but it keeps coming to
my mind for some reason. Several times today I've noticed that when
any of us try to pet or touch the top of Kodo's head, he jerks away
like he's pretty startled or upset, even though he was being held and
should have expected the attention. He did it again right afterward
too, even though he knew someone's hand was there. I'm sure this
just sounds really dumb and not important, but for some reason it
bothers me. I guess maybe because he LOVES getting pet and snuggled,
and never backs away from it.
I hope these changes will really help Kodo, and soon. Does it sound
like we might be on the right track now?
--
Happy Dookin',
The Hidey Hole Gang - http://www.hideyhole.org/
Jen, Mike & The Critters
The Ferrets - Loki & Vivi
The Rats - Ruby, Selphie, Rikku & Trillian
Missing Jamocha, Fria & Duke (ferrets)
Algernon, Plato, Mystique & Boo(rats)
Punk (hedgehog) & Dixie (chicken)
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